Franco stars as a real-life journalist who embraced fundamentalist Christianity after feeling torn between gayness and God The first two minutes of Justin Kelly?s ?I Am Michael? boil down the film?s ideological tension to one brief conversation. The titular character, an aspiring pastor, is counseling a distraught young gay man who?s unable to reconcile his religious beliefs with his sexuality. ??Gay? doesn?t exist,? the counselor says. ?It?s a false identity.?